The Bet
by Kathryn Claire O'Connor
Summary: What could have become of Mike and Lucas' bet. Please review! Thanks!:)


_And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. ~ Ephesians 4:23, 24 (King James Version)_

* * *

"Lucas! Hey, Lucas, wait up." Lucas Green turned from putting his crutches in his Mustang when Michael Evans called out to him. "Hey," Mike continued, "my dad's having a fellowship for the team at the church later on." Mike shrugged. "Just wanted to invite you."

Lucas raised his eyebrows.

Mike added, "Oh, you know, the coach is going and everything, so…"

"Church fellowship?" Lucas repeated.

Mike started rambling, trying to explain "Yeah, but it's a laid back get together, it's not like anything-"

"You can," Lucas interrupted his ramblings, smiling a little, "You can stop apologizing. It's alright." He looked at the ground and shifted on his crutches before looking back up at Mike and answering, "Look, I'll go, I just, I don't know, I don't want you to think that I'll be some kind of regular."

"Okay," Mike shrugged, "deal."

"Alright."

"Yeah."

"Besides," Lucas added, "God doesn't want anything to do with me."

"Do you really believe that?" Mike asked, eyes losing the happiness of a second ago.

Lucas looked away and grinned dryly, licking his lips before looking sideways at Mike. "Man, you just don't know what all I've done." He shook his head. "Nah, I just… No. God is not for me."

He went to get in his car but stopped when Mike said, "I'll tell you what; you and I will go to lunch – together – and, if I can't convince you otherwise, then lunch is on me."

Lucas laughed, surprised at this proposition. "A betting man, huh?"

Mike nodded, obviously pleased with himself as Lucas thought it over. "I like that." Lucas decided. "Yeah, you got a deal."

After all, who wouldn't turn down a free meal?

* * *

The next day, a Saturday, Lucas met Mike at a nearby burger franchise before the "church fellowship" later in the afternoon. They ordered their lunches separately, deciding that Mike could just give Lucas the amount if – no, when – he lost the bet. Then they settled into a table in a corner of the building.

Lucas rolled his eyes and stared awkwardly out the window as Mike bowed his head and offered up a silent prayer for his meal.

"Praying over a burger and fries?" Lucas asked with raised eyebrows once Mike had opened his eyes and lifted his head. "Really?"

Mike nodded with a tolerant smile. "Really. Some people have less or nothing to eat, so yeah."

Lucas smirked. "Any less than this stuff _is_ nothing. We're at the cheapest place in town."

"You ordered the most expensive things on the menu." Mike pointed out.

"Why not?" Lucas' smirk widened. "After all, you offered to pay for it."

"Not if I can convince you that God _is_ for you." Mike reminded needlessly, returning the smirk in kind.

"Alright," Lucas challenged, gesturing at the compact Bible that Mike had brought with him and lay in the table. "Convince me."

Mike ended up paying for both of their lunches because there was no way that Lucas was going to admit that what the other teenager had said had made an impact on him. But that didn't change the fact that it had.

Standing by their cars parked side by side in the parking lot, Mike said, "Hey, Lucas, I want you to have this." He held up the Bible. "I have another copy at home. You don't have to take it if you don't want to, and it would be fine with me either way. But if you do want it, it's yours for the asking, now or whenever." Mike paused before adding, "Kind of like salvation. Only, we don't really know if we'll have tomorrow or not. One of us might get hit driving out of this parking lot and die on impact. We don't know, Lucas, and that's why salvation is so important _today, right now_ – not tomorrow, not in a half an hour, but now." Mike sighed and held out the Bible. "I've told you all that I know to. Do you want it now or not?"

Lucas' first instinct was to say 'no' and hightail it away from this preacher's kid, but, to his own surprise, Lucas found that he did want it – the Bible… and God, salvation.

"Thanks." Lucas took the Bible and hastily turned towards his car.

"You know," Mike said, "If you ever want to talk about this some more, or about anything, I'd be more than willing. So would my dad, anyone in my family actually."

Lucas nodded, but Mike wasn't done just quite yet.

"And I know that it looks like I lost the bet, but I really do hope that something I said, I don't know, penetrated. Because, I've said it twice and I'll say it again: I'm not giving up on you."

With that, Michael finally got in his car and drove away, leaving Lucas standing there with a Bible, a head spinning with thought, and two hours to kill before the church fellowship. He got in his car, but just sat there, thinking about what Mike had said about getting hit as he drove out. The idea terrified him; he didn't want to die.

"I'm not ready for that yet." He voiced aloud what he had been coming to realize over the past couple of hours.

The admission shook Lucas. He carefully opened the Bible that he had just been given. He was surprised to see a sticky note attached to the inner flap of the Book. He recognized Mike's handwriting as he read the note.

_Just in case you want to see for yourself and look some more into what we talked about. _

Verses were listed below that. It was only their references that had been written down, but still the paper was crowded with writing.

And Lucas looked them up, reading every last one of them.

Then the young man who, less than three hours previous, had practically made fun of his teammate for praying bowed his head and, with tears in his eyes, did just that, accepting the free gift of God's salvation.

It wasn't ten seconds after he raised his head that Mike knocked on his car window, startling Lucas.

Lucas rolled the window down, asking, "What are you doing back here?"

"Your parents got worried when you didn't come back home, so they called me. I decided to come back and see if you were still here. Have you been here the whole time since I left? Is everything okay?"

Lucas broke into a wide smile. "Yes… and better than ever."

Mike looked confused. "What does that mean?"

By way of an answer, Lucas dug his wallet out of his pocket and handed his teammate back the money that Mike had forfeited earlier. Lucas saw when it dawned on Mike what the return meant.

As if he hardly dared to hope, let alone pose the question, Mike asked, "You've become a Christian?"

But it was a question that Mike already knew the answer to because the smile on the face of his new brother in Christ said it all.

* * *

**This is an idea that has been hanging around in my head for a while, and I decided to share it with you guys. Please review; it makes my day! Thanks! My next story is going to be an as of yet untitled "Courageous" one-shot.:) **


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